P-Day update week 86, 10/09/2023

 Muy buenas tardes mis amados hermanos en la fe!

This week went by super fast!! We saw a lot of miracles and I'm excited to talk briefly about some of them!!

Post lesson blizzard break!

So first of all I would like to talk about a few friends we've been teaching here! First let's talk about Willie. Willie has been in teaching for about 2 weeks now, and Elder Hernández told us that he hasn't been keeping his commitments. So we went one of our first days here to visit him and talk about faith, the Sabbath day, and enduring to the end! It was a great lesson! Even though we can only teach him in his candy store with a lot of people coming in and out we were able to have a very spiritual lesson! At the end of the lesson he committed to coming to church with is this Sunday and to read the Book of Mormon every day! Also he often gives us free treats from his candy store haha!!

The next friend I would like to talk about is Kandice! Kandice is the daughter of an inactive member here in the ward! She is 9 years old but super smart! Often times when we teach children of 8-11 years old we have to be really creative so they pay attention and actually learn, but with Kandice when we first went with her we had a very beautiful lesson and she was able to answer all our questions, albeit with a little time to think, but she was really learning! Actually they also are really close by, in fact I've never taught friends in teaching who have been so close to us! So here, we rent our house from a member that lives next door, and our house is literally on top of the member's doctor office. And Kandice's mom works as a secretary for the doctor, right below us! And Kandice is their with her mom when she gets out of school. So when we have lessons with then we just have to walk out of our house, walk down the stairs and take 5 steps to enter the Doctor's office to be able to teach them! Very cool!! And actually this last time we went with Kandice we gave her a blessing because she's been feeling sick! It's always interesting giving blessings to people for their first time, but it's always a spiritual experience!

Speaking of blessings, that blessing with Karen was the first of 5 blessings we gave last week! I'll briefly talk about them, and save the best for last! After that blessing with Karen we went out to work! By the way, working in this trio has been awesome! Elder Hernández, Elder Martinez and I have been able to find a nice flow to be able to teach together! And it's been so much fun as well! But we know that it's only temporary because this isn't his really transfer, its likely that this next week we won't be in a trio anymore, but it has definitely been fun!! But anyway that day we gave a blessing to Kandice we got a call right before we were ready to head home for the night from a sister in the ward who asked us to give a blessing to her daughter. We went by and got there a little early so we were able to contact her landlord haha, well see if he progresses! And after that the member arrived with her husband and her daughter, gave me a lot of soccer mom vibes, vibes I haven't seen in many moons!! But anyway we entered her home, which has an all wood interior which looked super good; then chatted for a while, turns out her husband isn't a member! We talked for a while and gave a blessing to the daughter and headed home! The next day as we were out proselyting we decided to go visit a sister in the ward who had mentioned she had a few references for us! We arrived and we talked about these friends. Se told us that they are her neighbors and are going through a hard time right now, she said that they have a big need for the Gospel! So we decided to set up a Family Home Evening for this coming Thursday to present ourselves with them! And taking advantage of the visit this member asked us for a blessing! Her husband was there and was like "Elders, is it true that your blessings are more blessed?" We were like "uhh nope" apparently a lot of people think that haha! But we gave the blessing and headed out. We gave one more blessing for a brother in Coatapec, a town outside of Xalapa while we did a baptismal Interview, super sweet guy, he actually just got baptized this past Saturday!! Now jumping into the last blessing we gave this week. It was actually right after the first blessing with Kandice. After we had finished with Kandice and were about to leave the Doctor offered a blessing to one of his patients!! She has Colon Cancer and it hasn't been getting better. She told the Doctor that she has different beliefs but he told her that it's the same God. And if she wants a blessing she can have one. She said yes. We introduced ourselves briefly with her and gave the blessing. We'll call her Queen. Right before we gave the blessing my companion saw that she was a little unsure, and asked her if she believed that Christ could help her. And she said yes. So we gave the blessing, and as we took our hands of her head she seemed to beam with light! This woman who just a few moments prior was saying how she is from a different church, and honestly didn't seem very convinced did a 180 and seemed like a different person! She thanked us and went quickly into her appointment with the doctor! But it doesn't end there. This last Sunday out of the blue she showed up to church with her husband!! She sat and watched the sacrament meeting and in the end was struck by the beautiful meeting! She said that she loved it!! I'll keep yall updated on what happens with Queen and her family! Remember that the Priesthood truly is the power of God on earth!!

La hermana Sheila y Vica de Alborada!!

Bus selfies is better than every other type of selfie

The trio

BOM eye color bro

To finish off this weekly update I would like to talk about one more friend we started teaching this week. So about a week before I got here the Elders received a reference from Facebook of a woman named Miriam. The Elders quickly contacted her and set up a lesson but when they got there they weren't able to meet with her. And as the days passed by they lost contact. But last Tuesday we received a message from Miriam out of the blue saying she wanted to meet with us at 4:30 in the church! We couldn't deny her,  so we set up our schedule and made sure we were there at 4:30 (more or less!). We introduced ourselves with her and gave her a quick tour of our church building, it was cool because there were people there for Institute and other activities so the building looked very "alive". As we walked she told us a bit about herself and her life and how she had been searching for the right place to go, and from just the tour she said to us that "I know that God sent y'all here for me, this is where he wants me to be"! When we heard that we were taken a back but also very touched by the spirit that entered into the room as she spoke. When we finished the tour we found a place to sit down and have a lesson. We taught her about the Gospel and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. And as we talked about Baptism we could see her desire to be cleaned. So we set a baptismal goal for her for the 29th of this month! She was overjoyed to have the opportunity to be baptized and start fresh. She told us of how hard it's been lately, at home, at work, in general. The Lord truly did put us in our paths to be able to help, in the little we can! 

How to pet street dogs without getting dirty

Cat on a concrete slab

I want to share with you all something I've been thinking about recently. And that's the power of daily Scripture study AND journaling. I think that these two seemingly separate acts are actually very much connected. Firstly the scriptures are really just the journal entries of the prophets given to them by revelation to guide all of God's children. And Journaling is our act of recording the blessings, revelations, and events of our lives to guide us and our children later on in life! I have seen a great change in me as I've lost myself in the constant study of the Scriptures. And with that connection of the spirit I have been able to more correctly remember my day and journal the impressions and miracle I see that day. I know that oftentimes we can't seem to find time to do these two things. But I promise that if you do your learnings and blessings will not only bless you but all of the generations to come after! 

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!! See you next week!

-Elder Garnica